Guild Wars 2

Hi there!

Long story short, I came back to GW2 from a long break and realised that every Mesmer out there is a Chronomancer with new skills/options. As you can imagine, I don’t have the HoT expansion and at the moment I don’t plan to purchase it. My question is simple. Is it worth to continue playing the game with a… “vintage” Mesmer? Is the Mesmer still playable and worthy with the old Builds (and not forced to be a Chronomancer)?

I will appreciate any reply and suggestions!

I have HoT and have played quite a bit of Chronomancer, its really good in PvE, but in PvP I still love my vintage mesmer more haha

Mesmer is in one of the best places right now, Chrono or otherwise. I think you will find your class a better vintage than when you last left.

Thanks for your replies and also it was good to know that someone else uses the “vintage” Mesmer than the Chrono one.

Depends on what you play. If pve is your thing, don’t even bother. Pvp you can manage as normal Mesmer, wvw groups don’t even bother unless you enjoy veil botting. Wvw roaming you can do.

For phantasm mantra build, chrono adds very little to it.

Doug Whisper.2465:

For phantasm mantra build, chrono adds very little to it.

Sure, but that build is worthless compared to any other damage build in the game, and worthless compared to the support that chrono does. I’d rather have an empty slot than a normal mes in most cases, cause at least I could lfg the last one.

Chrono is pretty much two things.

• 1. You get http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gravity_Well which you can cast twice with http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Continuum_Split

• 2. You can do away with the Dueling line because Chrono provides clone for shattering.

So yes, base Mes is fine (PvP). You just still have to run dueling :D

pvp- good and viable, other game modes(beside roaming) chrono is almost mandatory

Base Mesmer is still viable. That said, you are absolutely missing out by not getting HoT. The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Stormbolt.7293:

Base Mesmer is still viable. That said, you are absolutely missing out by not getting HoT. The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Rofl, PvP is a mess, and WvW is utterly broken, and we’re talking fundamentally, not class balance. xD

But yeah buy HoT, Berserker is great

Ross Biddle.2367:

Stormbolt.7293:

Base Mesmer is still viable. That said, you are absolutely missing out by not getting HoT. The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Rofl, PvP is a mess, and WvW is utterly broken, and we’re talking fundamentally, not class balance. xD

But yeah buy HoT, Berserker is great

Can’t really talk about PvP since I haven’t played it much. I’m reserving all judgement about the WvW maps until the population picks up a bit. It’s not perfect, but Anet is trying. PvE maps are incredible, especially Dragon’s Stand.

I don’t think the “vintage” mesmer is dead. Overall Chronomancer doesn’t add a lot to the old zerk mesmer (which I never played because I find it too braindead to be played). For the condi it can give a few interesting combo between the shield massive interrupt and the F5 shatter spam combos.
As support it gives a few new options which I don’t find extremly useful to be honest despite the fact that everyone is so thrilled about the wells and alacrity. I think wells are very poorly thought out, most are very useless, none of them give any condition damage, and being both offensive and defensive make most crap at both. Only precognition, the healing one and the ultimate one are truly standing out in my opinion because of their “uniqueness”, others are often having no impact at all and are better replaced with other spells in my opinion.

Overall the mesmer had a HUGE help with the buff to the clones taking only 10% of damage from aoe. So even vintage mesmer can do a lot more cool stuff now.

vintage mes wont die anytime soon always will have to equip 2 trait lines from base game. even looking at the new spvp builds they still mostly run base skills too. I rather enjoy alacrity alot! The f5 ability to be able to double shatter or double elite is pretty sweet too

That being said having chronomancer or not doesn’t make or break viability ( at least in my opinion). if you soloq youll still have the chance to get 4 smeckles where it wont matter and if you teamq you’ll still have the same role. youll still have same issues as well tanky reapers, trap dragonhunters, revs with there long fights

Stormbolt.7293:

The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Especially tempest -_-

Lorath.2504:

Stormbolt.7293:

The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Especially tempest -_-

I’ve played Chronomancer, Daredevil, Scrapper, Reaper, Tempest, and Herald. Yet to be disappointed by any of them.

Stormbolt.7293:

Lorath.2504:

Stormbolt.7293:

The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Especially tempest -_-

I’ve played Chronomancer, Daredevil, Scrapper, Reaper, Tempest, and Herald. Yet to be disappointed by any of them.

I really wouldnt put the chronomancer and the tempest in the same category of effectiveness. Anyway… this isnt the elementalist forum so Ill just shut up now.

old pu shatter meta in my opinion is still really really strong. I tried other builds, chronomancer too but for pvp , i find it the best. Chronomancer is stronger against condi enemy , but i am not so sure that Chronomancer is stronger than classic mesmer. The chaos line is really good and for pvp , at the end, i find classic pu shatter mesmer stronger than chronomancer at least in solo . It is only my point of view obviously . the mechanics of the builds are almost the same ( gs + sword torch usually )

Stormbolt.7293:

Lorath.2504:

Stormbolt.7293:

The new maps are amazing, masteries were implemented perfectly, and all of the elite specs are a blast to play.

Especially tempest -_-

I’ve played Chronomancer, Daredevil, Scrapper, Reaper, Tempest, and Herald. Yet to be disappointed by any of them.

I played scrapper and tempest quite a lot. For pvp , in my opinion scrapper is good but not so better than other engi builds ( i main an engi ) . For tempest in my opinion in pvp … is not that good (calestial , cantrips + arcana+water + (air,fire,or earth with staff) remain far superior for me

PvP wise, chronomancer adds very little to the class’ burst, thus, focusing your build more on full burst rather than sustained damage works well.

PvE wise, chronomancer currently has a completely overpowered trait called “All’s well that ends well” to the point where you aren’t going to see many people running anything that doesn’t include it unless it gets nerfed. There is perhaps a case to make for inspiration/signet builds in fractals 51-60 if your party is full melee berserker with no presence of mind or ability to deal with the exploding enemies, but, that’s the exception.

Eponet.4829:

where you aren’t going to see many people running anything that doesn’t include it unless it gets nerfed.

At which point, you won’t see Mesmers running much of anything at all XD

You can call it overpowered if you like, but it’s not actually over-powered unless it legitimately should not be that powerful…and AWtEW isn’t mandatory because it’s sooper-powerful, but because there aren’t good reasons to bring mesmers without it.